Tatars, historically Tartars, is an umbrella term for Turkic peoples in the territory of the former Russian Empire (and as such generally includes all Northwestern Turkic speaking peoples).

The Tatars are the Turkic-speaking population of Tartary, the lands ruled by Turco-Mongol elites from the 14th century until the conquests of the Russian Empire in the 18th to 19th centuries.

During the early modern period, a distinction is made between the European and Asian Tatar territories, by referring to Lesser Tartary and Greater Tartary, respectively.The largest group by far descending from the historical Tatars are the Volga Tatars, native to the Volga region (Tatarstan and Bashkortostan), who for this reason are often also simply known as "Tatars", and their language as Tatar language.

Their number is estimated as close to 6 million (as of 2002).

Besides the Volga Tatars, there are smaller groups also descended from the historical Tatars, the largest group of these being the Crimean Tatars, numbering close to half a million, whose Crimean Tatar language is not now intelligible with the Volga Tatar language.